Big Indiana Bass

A New Perspective On An Old Issue

Carp get fingered for a lot of negative aquatic issues, but a new study about to be published takes a new look at one particular aspect of an old issue. "Effects of Common Carp on Reproduction, Growth, and Survival of Largemouth Bass and Bluegills" by Wolfe, et. al. (see related studies) took a look a what happens in these interactions on a larger mesocosm scale (600 m>2). As expected, turbidity was substantially higher in enclosures containing common carp than those without. What was unexpected though was successful spawning by both bluegill and bass at rates equivalent to non-carp enclosures. In fact, survival of juvenile largemouth bass was higher in enclosures with carp than in those without, and larval abundance of both bass and bluegill were equivalent to non-carp enclosures. This suggested little if any feeding by carp upon the eggs or nests of both species, a commonly accusatory phenomenon. Higher survival rates of larval and juvenile largemouth bass were theorized as possibly attributable to the increase in turbidity making young fish less susceptable to predation as they might have used that turbidity as a form of cover or camouflage.

That said, the news wasn't all good. While survival of larvals was equal to or greater than non-carp enclosures, and growth was also equivalent in that age group, growth of older juveniles suffered strongly. While they couldn't pinpoint a specific reason, theories included either elimination of a specific food source or type required at a critical stage of development due to turbidity or vegetative removal, or possible intraspecific competition between juveniles due to an increased survival rate and a potentially limited food supply.

Ultimately, researchers summarized, "Although common carp did not directly reduce reproductive output or initial survival of largemouth bass and bluegills, the reductions in observed growth of juveniles may have long-term implications for centrarchid population abundance and size structure", and that "negative effects of common carp on centrarchid populations may persist over several generations, eventually impairing sport fisheries and making improvements to population size structure difficult."

The Crappie Motherload

After months of being flooded and high due to all the spring rains we've had, my favorite crappie lake has finally been pulled down to normal pool elevation. A couple reports from earlier in the week said that the crappie bite had been "on" and that the fish were running larger than last year, many in the 10"-14" range. That combination, along with a weather report that included light winds at best sent me packing with a pair of jig sticks in the tin boat on a search for crappie. Things were slow for the first couple hours as fish seemed scattered and boat traffic was pretty bad. But 2 hours into the trip things changed for the better, and in a mighty big way.

I found the MOTHERLOAD! Quite possibly the best school of crappie I've ever found in Indiana. Fish, after fish, after fish for nearly 2 hours solid. I can't tell you how many I caught because I stopped counting a couple casts in. I don't know - 80, 90, probably 100 or more. What made it so great beside the numbers was the quality. At least 90% of all the fish caught out of this school were between 11"-12". Outside of about 4 or 5 little ones I can remember catching, nothing I checked was smaller than 10.5". I never popped a giant either, but nearly foot long crappie as fast as you can cast is nothing short of awesome in my Indiana book. A jig bite made in heaven. Now, if only they'll hold together until next weekend :)

Another Great One Remembered

I was reminded of another great bass pioneer last night while surfing the Net. There isn't much I could find about him currently on the web, but I remember reading about him quite a bit when I first started getting into bass fishing around the late 70's. His nickname was "Mr. Bomber", and he was "THE" pitchman for the lure company of the same name. He won the Texas State Bass Championship 3 out of 4 years back in the 60's and is inducted into the Texas Fishing Hall of Fame. He travelled the country quite a bit doing promotional work for Bomber. His name was Floyd Mabry and he was a heavy tackle, play with 'em in the boat cranking kind of guy. He passed away back in 1991, but I did come across this article from the Holmes County Herald date Nov. 21, 1968. You can zoom out or just use "the hand" cursor to scroll down through the brief write-up.

When Bass Are Invasive

If you've read a lot about the giant largemouth caught recently in Japan, you were undoubtedly exposed to the fact that largemouth are considered an invasive pest species over there. In some places here in America the same holds true. One such place is Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Here is a current news story going into some specifics on research being carried out to determine the extent of invasiveness of both bluegill and largemouth in that particular water body.

• Warm water fish thrive at Tahoe
• Bass, bluegill spread throughout Lake Tahoe

Modification of Reservoir Release in the Upper Wabash River

A new project is underway for Indiana, to partially restore natural flows to the upper Wabash River. Mark Pyron (Ball State University), Reuben Goforth (Purdue University), Ron Turco (Purdue University), and Kent Wamsley (The Nature Conservancy) are working with the US Army Corps of Engineers and United States Geological Survey to modify the flow release from the three upper Wabash River reservoirs. We have scheduled a meeting at Purdue University Beck Education Center on August 5, 2009 beginning at 1 pm, to present and discuss the project. Presentations include the historic and current Wabash River fishes (Pyron), management of flood control reservoirs in the upper Wabash River (Bill Byron, Jamie Blanton, USACE), the Green River, Kentucky, reservoir release project (Richie Kessler, Campbellsville University), and impacts to landowners and farmers of flooded lands and potential opportunities to lessen the impacts (Jerod Chew, Indiana State Department of Agriculture).

Fractions of Refraction

By Richard Ziert

We know fish use shadow and other positions in diminishing light for concealment and foraging. “Diminishing” is all about penetration, scattering, and refraction.

Light refracts in the atmosphere with air density.

( Clouds – Humidity – Pollution Index – Early & Late in the day – Seasonal Angle of the Sun ),

Light refracts at the waters surface because of the boundary of air to water and the surface temperature difference from the atmosphere.

( Spring – Summer – Fall – Winter )

Light scatters again with wind stirred water surface chop.

( None – Mild – Medium – Heavy ).

Then light scatters off of particles in the water column.

( Clear – Stained – Heavy Stain )

Light refracts with the density and quality of water.

( Gradually, as water deepens – pH Changes )

But light refracts still again at the boundary of two distinct temperatures beneath the surface.

(Heavily Shaded Areas - Over hangs – Weed Beds – Strategically Located Bluff Walls - Docks – Lay Downs –  Rock Piles - Drop Offs - etc. )

Thermoclines are  just such differences; explaining why not much light gets through all those layers and areas of water.

This same difference occurs with any similar water temperature change.

( Incoming Streams, Heavily Shaded Areas, Underwater Springs, and even Rainfall, mixing with lake water).

Adding these “fractions of refraction” together at any given time on any given day can give fisherman a better handle on how deep or shallow to present baits and where their greatest success will be triggered. The more the degree of these factors come into play, the shallower the average bite. Couple this with presentation speed and bait characteristics (less Light – slower/greater contrast/larger profile/noisier ) and you will give yourself a giant leg up over the majority of fisherman on the lake.

Behold the Maximus

NOTE: Due to popular demand and inquiry, I'm bumping this post up and publishing it today instead of tomorrow.

Tired of getting your clock cleaned at the week night tourneys? Want to throw something just a "little" different than what everybody else is throwing at your next state level tourney, with a slightly different presentation than what your bass are used to seeing? This is the bait I've been playing with the past two weeks.

At the bottom is a standard 3/16-oz shakey head with a 6.0" straight tail worm. Above is the 10.5" Maximus straight-tailed floating worm rigged on a 5/8-oz X-Lock custom shakey head. The bait has a 6/0 needle point hook similar to what is used on a toad bait. A tiny screw spring is used to attach the head of the bait securely. Both the worm and the jig head are marketed by a company called Xcite Baits out of Texas, but don't be fooled. The bait definitely works here in Indiana.

I've played around with a few different setups but right now have pretty much dialed in to a 6'9"-7'0" MH rod and somewhere around 15#-17# pound line as the best all around outfit for me. I went with lighter line at first but have broken a couple good fish off because of it. It's one of those cases where you really need a little "mass in the ass" to counteract the size fish that bites this bait combined with the weight of the bait itself. Don't be surprised if you start hearing whispers on the tourney trails of lots more wins coming on this rig this summer. "Big Indiana Bass" is giving you the heads-up first.

Go West Young Man

Met my buddy BJ out at the 'Coon for a little practice time yesterday. It had been several years since I bass fished out there, most of my time being spent chasing crappie the times I have gone this past year. After today I might have to rethink that approach.

We fished from 8:30-2:30, neither of us being much of a morning type person. Kind of scary what might have happened if we had shown up at 5:30 a.m. like most bassers do. Then again, we had a good layer of heavy cloud cover hanging around for most all of the day which acted like an extension of a morning bite, so it didn't really hurt us too much. Loads of traffic out on that lake being a holiday weekend, especially since everything got rained out Saturday and moved to Sunday, including the fireworks.

We ended the day with 11 keepers and about half a dozen shorts. Spent a lot of time mixing it up and covering water and just trying to figure out some stuff. Caught fish on both topwaters and underwaters ;~) When the boat traffic picked up along with a good breeze, we were able to catch several on spinnerbait also. Never really slowed down enough to toss slow baits as that wasn't the primary game plan. Ended up finding four good areas with concentrations of bass, enough to be able to move around in the morning and yet still be able to set down later if conditions dictate. No giants today, but absolutely nothing wrong with a double limit like the chunks below:

Friday Evening Tourney

I've been promising to fish a local jackpot tourney with a neighbor of mine for about a year now. I finally got around to fulfilling that commitment this weekend. The local lake has started up a jackpot tourney on Friday nights and with the Holiday I happened to have the day off. Based on my field trip that morning to 'Lake X' I was actually looking forward to fishing this one and seeing if the new 'plastic' would work on this lake. Bad news was that my neighbor's Statos had a broken trolling motor cable that hadn't been repaired yet from it's failure the previous weekend. As such, we had to fish out of the little tin rig with the 10hp engine againast the field of 'big glass'.

After registering my partner drew boat #3 from the chip can. I told him it didn't matter because we would be the last boat out. There was no way I was putting the tin can in the middle of a field of trigger happy shotgun bassers. When the starter called our number we just waved from the dock where I was tied up and chatting with another friend who was heading out for some hybrid striper fishing and another who was just getting in after bluegill fishing with his grand son. After everybody cleared out and the water settled down we fired the Merc and headed out.

First spot we pulled up to was a long point dropping off into the main basin of the lake. We started on the end of the point and worked our way around one side. My partner was throwing a jig and I had on the new plastic. Wasn't long before I felt a bite and swung on what turned out to be a nice 2.5 pound bass. This particular tourney has a 3 fish limit and all bass must be over 16" in length. First fish in and a solid keeper to boot - a good way to start. The new bait is looking impressive.

We hit a couple other spots to no avail before moving to a little drop that falls from about 9' into 16' with some trash in one particular stretch. Again the new plastic comes through after about 15 minutes on this spot with a very solid 3.5 pound bass. Two good bass in the well with just over 2 hours to go. Darkness is setting in so I decide to go shallow to see if anything is happening there yet.

I start chunking a buzzbait around rock and weed shoreline cover and start getting bite after bite on the buzzer. Problem is they are almost all small. They're not blowing up on the bait either, rather just sucking it in. This results in quite a few missed fish or fish that are lightly hooked and end up coming off. A couple appear to be pretty close to the 16" size limit but there isn't much I can do about that. They're just not hitting it well and I didn't pack any trailer hooks. What appears to be a bigger bass blasts the buzzer right at boat side as I go to lift it out of the water and short lines me. Our limit fish quickly escapes us - argh!

We move back out to deep water where we pick up a short fish or two but time is runing out. Finally with just 15 minutes to go we decide to buzz one more bank not too far from the marina. I get blasted on a rock point by a fish but it's another dink. Guess it's just not our night. Ten minutes to go and my partner is ready to call it. I say lets just work up to a dock I can see about 50 yds. ahead of me. We get to the dock, I buzz both sides of a large log I know is sitting there to no avail. I swing the nose of the boat out to get around the dock and head out. There is a small 10' opening between two boats, one tied to the dock and one just down. There is a nice little clump of weeds that edges a drop right along the bank that the pontoon boat is nearly covering. I know it's there because I shore fished the area a week ago with the little Touchdown worm and caught 7 bass from the small area. I can't hardly see a thing because it's almost midnight, but I fire one last cast to the bank and start the retrieve.

Two cranks in and a big fish explodes on the bait. I say big fish because it sounds like one of those bites where you'd swear someone threw a brick in the water. I can't actually see the fish but within seconds realize it is a nice fish by the way it is bulldogging. My partner hears the commotion as I tell him to get the net and a flashlight. I fight the fish to near the boat and we're hoping it's not a big ole' catfish. The fish finally surfaces and the light hits him - it's a nice bass!

I get the fish somewhat close and back on top and my partner does a big stretch job to get the net under him, still one hand holding the flashlight, the other the net. We get him in the boat, my partner unhooks him and pops him in the well and says "Let's go! 6 minutes to check in". Fortunately we're within a quarter mile of the marina and we make our way across the water and get checked in with a minute or so to spare. Coming across the water I can feel the old tourney competition juices firing up.

We get our weigh bag, load up with water and slip our fish into the sack. We know we've got a couple pretty solid fish and a halfway decent chance at a check. We check the board as we turn our bass over to get bumped. A little over 8.75 is leading. Ahead of us another team weighs in a solid sack at just over 10 pounds. I know we don't have that beat with our 3 fish, but can we knock off that 8.79 on the board? The guy bumping our fish says no need to check any of them on the board, they're all obviously above 16". The weigh master takes them and moves to the scale - the moment of truth. The digitals settle at 9.33. After a couple more guys weigh in the results are final. We lock up 2nd place out of the little tin machine. The winnings buy my wife and I dinner tonight and allow me to place an even larger order for more of the new plastics :)

Lake 'X' Field Testing

Made a trip over to 'Lake X', one of our field testing sites that we use to test "new" baits, develop and refine techniques and check out setups. I also got the chance to bring Asshat along as repayment for some of those river smallie trips he took me on this spring. Bite turned out to be pretty good, and I learned a few things in the process. Even on a less pressured test lake the bite can go bad at any given time based on the fish and the conditions just like any other lake, or the fish can become conditioned to the presentations they do see regularly.

First fish of the day and real early into the trip was this nice 20.25" beast. Didn't bring any scales but based on length and overall body condition he had to have been pushing the 5 pound mark, perhaps a few ounces shy. I'm not complaining either way. My next best was a 19.5" fish that was also very solid. Both those bass came on a relatively new bait I'm testing around here so I'm sworn to subtlety and lack of details at the moment :) I can tell you it is a fairly new plastic bait just hitting the market and gaining some popularity in other parts of the country. Can't wait to try it out on some other reservoirs around here now based on what I saw yesterday.

Not to be outdone, Asshat had another beast of equal or larger proportions just slam a big spinnerbait. After maintaining grip of his rod and some strong runs that tested the drag system of his 20 year old Shimano, the brute cleared the air as best a big fish can and spit the bait back at him. It was going to be released anyway, and Asshat was happy with the experience in general :)

Beyond that we had several 16"-18" fish on topwaters along with the other baits mentioned. Don't think we had anything on jig or deep crankbait though. All told a great way to spend 4 hours of my day.